An updated version of the Big Five Publishers and Library Lending matrix (PDF) is now available. Readers of this blog might want to comment on some questions that come to my mind as I think through the implications of this new approach: How does a library decide whether the one-year or two-year option is right? Why … Continue reading Simon & Schuster Offers Two-Year Ebook Discount
BCALA President Kelvin Watson says this will be the first ebook award offered by an ALA affiliate. “For many years, we have had self-published authors who wanted to participate in the literary awards,” says Watson, Queens (N.Y.) Library’s director of e-content services and strategy. The award provides the opportunity to highlight diverse voices in the … Continue reading ALA Affiliate Launches Ebook Award
Some of that anxiety has been over fear of being locked into terms that might prove economically unviable. That is, of course, a legitimate concern. We could argue, however, that earlier in the life of a technology is, in fact, the best time to experiment. There is much to be learned, and less to lose, … Continue reading The Ebook Pricing Wars
So what does it mean? First, it appears that 3M wasn’t finding the business all that profitable. I suspect that’s because although 3M’s interface is arguably far superior to that of OverDrive, our patrons have now gone through the initial agony of learning OverDrive’s app and don’t stray much beyond it. OverDrive (which itself was … Continue reading From 3M to Bibliotheca
What can we glean from this shift? First, despite an appealing design and many feature-for-feature advantages over the Amazon experience, Oyster by itself couldn’t topple the e-tailer giant’s lead. Second, it ain’t over. Google is still in the business of selling ebooks, and Google is a credible contender in the marketplace. Third, it’s hard to … Continue reading Oyster “Acqui-hired”
The result? Sales have fallen. Worstall notes that three big publishers that signed new deals with Amazon—Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster—saw their ebook revenues drop in the last reporting period. Who could have foreseen it? Other than, well, everybody. Raising the price almost always means fewer sales. Lowering the price means … Continue reading Breaking News: Water Is Wet
Anne Leer, WIPO deputy director for copyright and related rights, said that the reason the treaty was so massively successful was because “IFLA members were so active in promoting it. This is a good example of what we can achieve if we communicate what is needed on national and international levels.” The message was simple, … Continue reading Expressly about the Marrakesh Treaty
How does that happen if publishers fix the price libraries pay? It’s time for transparency on library ebook pricing from both publishers and distributors. This blog has maintained a chart comparing the price a library pays OverDrive to the consumer ebook price from Amazon as a ratio. For example, in February libraries paid six times … Continue reading DCL Ebook Report, August 2015
The Adobe Digital Editions incident last October was a wake-up call for many people. The new version of the Digital Editions client was transmitting data about the reading habits of users in a way that left readers vulnerable to eavesdropping. Adobe quickly provided a fix to encrypt the data during transmission, but the incident raised … Continue reading New Privacy Guidelines for Ebooks
Our first keynote came from Lee Rainie, director of internet, science, and technology at Pew Research Center. He shared some soon-to-be-published data (keep an eye on libraries.pewinternet.org) that’s worth thinking about. He paired two trends: On the one hand, enthusiasm for the public library and librarians is on the rise. On the other, library use … Continue reading New Reports: Ebooks, Libraries, and Reading Trends
One current trend in library technology aims to improve the engagement of patrons with libraries or to provide tools to help users work more effectively. In many respects, the technologies on display reinforced the theme of the “Library Systems Report 2015,” operationalizing the innovations brewing in recent years, including the increased adoption of Semantic Web technologies … Continue reading A Look at Tech
In brief, this three-way partnership between the New York Public Library (NYPL), DPLA, and First Book (with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services) seeks to make free ebooks accessible to low-income children between the ages of 0 and 18. The books will be made available through the NYPL Library Simplified app (available in … Continue reading The Open Ebooks Initiative
